ABOUT URBAN ZEN

The Urban Zen Foundation creates, connects and collaborates to raise awareness and inspire change in the areas of well-being, preserving cultures and empowering children. We design forums, partner with existing organizations and bring together experts to define solutions and implement action.

Our focus is to change the current healthcare paradigm to include integrative medicine and promote patient advocacy. We must treat the patient with the same passion we treat the disease by combining western science with nutrition, yoga and eastern healing practices.

Our mission is to care for our children’s well-being and give them the tools to face obstacles and opportunities with love, compassion & strength. We collaborate with existing children’s organizations and create programs to enhance their spiritual, physical and emotional growth.

Our goal is to help cultures maintain their natural essence and identity in the face of globalization. We connect with programs that help communities preserve their unique cultural and spiritual values. We celebrate their creativity and craft to allow their sustainability.

Founder’s Greeting

” I have spent decades dressing people. Now I want to address them.” DONNA KARAN

At some point in our lives, any one of us may find ourselves touched by illness, either our own or a loved one’s – as I learned when my late husband Stephan fell ill. Stephan’s illness opened up a whole new world to me, a world that I would never have sought or wished for, but one which taught me so much.That experience and all I learned from it awakened me to what is missing from mainstream health care, and it inspired me to build a bridge to the health care of the future.

I invite you to join me in co-creating that bridge to the humane health care system we all want. There’s no doubt that at moments of crisis and vulnerability, conventional medicine is critical in treating many diseases, but our science does not embrace the spirit of wholeness essential to authentic caring for patients and their families. Every one of us needs and deserves true caring at those times. Through sitting at Stephan’s bedside and those of far too many friends, I discovered that even a few simple acts of healing can soften and transform a painful experience into one of comfort and hope. Just being present to listen and to share concerns is so powerful. Whether it’s offering the scent of a therapeutic oil or the healing touch of Reiki, there’s so much more we can do and must do for people facing illness.

At one time or another, the people we love and care about may need this kind of care—and we may need it ourselves. When we take the time to be present, the results are physical and tangible – and also emotional and spiritual. My husband’s lung cancer made breathing a challenge. Yoga and breath work gave Stephan physical relief as well as spiritual comfort, calmed his anxiety, centered his mind and eased his pain. Based on our experience together at that time, I grew inspired to offer this type of caring to others and to assure its availability in hospital settings where people need it most. I’m so grateful to see my own life experiences and learning translated into a healing benefit to others. It is my fervent wish to make these offerings available to all who need them.